Tech

Meerkat's new Cameo feature lets other users join your video stream

Live streaming app Meerkat on Wednesday released what might just be its biggest update yet with features that allow users to invite others into their stream, better Facebook integration and the ability to store your library of clips for the future.

The first big feature is called Cameo and it could be a game-changer in the world of live streaming apps.

The genesis behind Meerkat (and similar apps such as Twitter's Periscope) is to allow users to easily stream their video feed with a broader audience in real-time.

With Cameo, Meerkat is turning that idea on its head. Instead of just letting users stream what they see to others, Meerkat is also going to let users invite their viewers to "take over" their live streams for 60 seconds at a time.

Tap on a viewer's profile and invite them to cameo into your stream. Alternatively, comment "Cameo @username".

Once accepted, for up to sixty seconds the viewer takes over the stream

Both people can end the cameo at any time, at which point the video returns to the broadcaster who started the stream

The concept is a way to allow more voices into a conversation. "The best part of Cameo is that we really don't know what users will do with it," Rubin said.

To kick off the launch, Meerkat is partnering with The Weather Channel, TMZ, Fox, The CW, Mastercard and Champion League Sports. It's also working with its community to have a broader #CameoParty of sorts on launch day.

Better Facebook integration

In addition to Cameo, Meerkat is also stepping up its social integration, this time with Facebook.

Users can now sign-up for a Meerkat account without having to have a Twitter account. This is a big deal because until now, Meerkat has primarily been tied to a users's Twitter identity. Yes, the service supports sharing out to other networks too, but you needed a Twitter account to sign-up to the service.

This was fine before Twitter launched its competing product, Periscope. Now, relying on Twitter for the social graph is more of a problem than an asset.

Meerkat seems to know this too. You can now connect your Facebook profile with Meerkat and get alerts when your friends or Facebook Pages you follow joins Meerkat or starts a stream.

Meerkat is emphatic that nothing is ever automatically posted to your Facebook timeline.

The support for Facebook Pages is a big deal for brands, especially those that are bigger on Facebook than on Twitter. But it raises a key question about how users may respond to notifications during a live stream. Will this be something they accept — or is this something that will get tuned out as excess noise.

Users can also post about their scheduled broadcasts to Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr — as a way of building advanced engagement.

Meerkat Library

Image: Meerkat

One of the biggest user requests from Meerkat has been a way for users to save their streams to watch later. Yes, you can save your stream to your camera roll — and yes, third-party hacks exist to save stream to YouTube — but there hasn't been an official way to save streams for archival or future sharing purposes.

Meerkat is rolling out its new Meerkat Library feature as a beta to its userbase. Now when you finish a broadcast, you can choose to save it to your personal library. By default, any stream you save will be private and viewable only to you.

You can then choose what streams you want to share with others and which ones you want to keep private.

This is a great feature and something users will really appreciate. The ephemeral nature of live streaming services is great but sometimes it is nice to have a record of what happened. Especially with the new Cameo feature.

Is this enough?

Meerkat was first live stream app to market but it quickly became cannibalized by the better capitalized Periscope. As a user, I've tended to prefer Periscope because it has a larger community — at least amongst the people I connect with.

That said, Meerkat's new feature set is smart and in the right direction. It's strategic to move away from the pure Twitter connection and into integration with other services. If Meerkat could establish itself as the native Facebook way to share live video, the service could prosper.

I've been upfront in my belief that in the game of live streaming video apps, there will probably only be one big winner — at least when the service offerings are as similar as Meerkat and Periscope.

Still, I can't help but want to root for Meerkat, especially when it continues to innovate with features such as Cameo.

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